DNDGD Preview: Xandross Male Human Fighter

Yesterday i gave DMs some tips on how to run the game day adventure, and previewed Tower the Warforged Artificer. Today i'll be covering the final player character and talk a bit about designing the adventure.

If you remember from Monday groups will be able to sit down and build the adventure in advance. This section will roughly take 1 hour. And here are a few things to keep in mind

Limit

Limit yourselves to what your using in each encounter. It might be hard to count up the XP and figure out a good number, so instead a good rule of thumb is having the same total level. Party of five, sixth level characters give you 30 levels of monsters to play with. Keep this in mind when building each encounter

Re-Use

Just because you used monsters in the first encounter doesn't mean you can't use them again. Your limited with the miniatures and monsters you an use so don't be afraid if your not using all of them. Go with what makes sense for your adventure.

Terrain

Review your double sided map, see what monsters make sense, and where they should be placed. What are the monsters doing. Are they expecting an attack or is this just their base. If so how are they acting. Use terrain to the adventures advantage. Don't forget that ranged creatures will benefit from higher ground.

Story

Go with what fits in your story, focus on the story when your building the adventure. A good story will be remembered by the players who play it. If the scarecrow doesn't make sense, then don't use him.

Finally ask your self how you would feel if you were playing the adventure you designed. Would you feel cheated that it was too tough, would you feel that everything was stacked against you? Or would you enjoy the challenge.

Make sure you have fun tomorrow, and Here is Xandross

Find a Game Near You

My Game Day is being held at Alternate Icons

257 Marlborough Street, Brantford On

Noon until 6pm

Sleep time, happy game day tomorrow.

DNDGD Preview: Tower Warforged Artificer

Yesterday i previewed Naivara Female Eladrin Swordmageand talked about what everyone should bring to the game day event.

Today I'm going to talk about some DM tips for those DMing the games.

DMing for the game day is a bit different than normal events, and i highly recommend following these simple kiss rules.

Stay true to the adventure

Though your the DM your group worked together as a team and designed the adventure, try and stay true to what the adventure entailed.

Make a Call

If you run into something that others question, just make a call. Ask the player to look it up while they wait for their turn to come around, and if your in the wrong award them a temporary action point that they can use until the end of the encounter. its not perfect but it keeps everyone happy and it keeps the ball rolling

Assign a Buddy System

Find out if there are some people who are new to system, ask for volunteers who will sit with them and help them through the game as they go. Focus on the basic Move, Attack, Minor and the rest should follow suit.

Say Yes to the Players

Sure your group wants you to make it hard for the players, but if they come up with a good idea or something you haven't seen before, just say yes. Or say, 'that's a good idea, but that might require an action point' if the player is willing to spend the action point let them do what they want to do. Play this by ear, let the players drive the game.

Initiative

Stay on top of initiative, if you've DMed 4e before you know how hard it can be to track 40 different things. See my posts yesterday about bringing proper condition markers and initiative trackers.

Monsters

Spend a bit of time during the prep to read over the monsters, bring a highlighter so you can remind yourself of any regeneration, damage reduction etc.

Have Fun

Everyone is here to have fun, you, the players and the organizers. Just keep this in mind, don't be afraid to break some rules in the name of fun. Players will walk away with a memorable game and a overall enjoyment.

Character Death

I seriously doubt characters are going to die, but if thing get heavy jump in and help them out where you can. Have a NPC suddenly show up and drag the person to safety. Sure people will question it, but again its about having fun, not trying to get a TPK under your belt.

Tower, Warforged Artificer

Well that's it for today, tomorrow i will preview the final character and talk about some tips on building the adventure. They will be very general.

Find a Game Near You

My Game Day is being held at Alternate Icons

257 Marlborough Street, Brantford On

Noon until 6pm

Until game day keep your dice on the table.

DNDGD Preview: Naivara Female Eladrin Swordmage

Yesterday i previewed Glorinus Male Human Invoker, today I'll focus on a new character and talk a bit about what you should bring to your local game day.

If you were at the players handbook game day, then you'll know there were dice, each table had a set of dice. These dice were absent at monster manual 2 game day, and again are not going to be showing up in this game day. Fact is I'm sure dice are something that needed to have been cut to keep the cost down while they focused elsewhere.

This is where you game stores out there hosting the event can shine a little. Offer a set of dice up at each table, then at the end of the night give someone a chance to win them. This gets you more involved with the players.

All

Be sure to support your friendly local gaming store and bring some money to purchase snacks, drinks and books. I'm a firm believer that if players support their gaming store, the gaming store does the same to them and hosts more and more free events. So pickup your book on game day from your store.

Players

All players should bring some pencils, paper, and dice. This is core to any game, you can play any role playing with these 3 items alone. It also can't hurt to bring a spare blank character sheet, and a players handbook.

Dungeon Masters

If your planing on being a dungeon master at the event be sure to bring all the core stuff that players are bringing and whatever you feel comfortable with bringing from the organizer section below. Its also a good idea to bring a dungeon master screen, since it will have the core information you need.

Organizers

As an organizer you have a lot of work to do, you're aware of this and that's what you've signed up for, i find the more you put into something like this the more you get out, so here are some things that i plan on doing that you might want to think about as well.

Spare dice - keep some extra ones kicking around

Spare miniatures - again bring in some form home and label them in advance

Extra Rules - Don't forget to photocopy the rules page in advance, wotc only gave out 2 sets

Paper - bring some paper and ask players to write down contact information for you

Name Tags - Name tags are great, have players either use their own name, or their players name

DCI cards - be sure to bring enough for everyone, and write down information for yourself in case players lose it in the future.

Markers - I have a set of bloodied/status markers that i plan on bringing

Burst Templates - again i will be bringing my burst templates, never know

Initiative - ah, initiative, when not using IniTracker, i use this Printable DM. Feel free to print off a bunch for the event. I've since lost the original URL. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/408350/printableDM.PDF

Quick Start Rules - Its great to have a copy on hand for new players to review, and great way to get them into the edition by giving this away for free.

Overall I'm excited it seems like fun and i can't wait.

Lets take a look at Naivara now

Well there you have it

Find a Game Near You

My Game Day is being held at Alternate Icons

257 Marlborough Street, Brantford On

Noon until 6pm

Tomorrow I'll talk about DMing tips to keep in mind for the game day.

DNDGD Preview: Glorinus Male Human Invoker

Yesterday i previewed Holkarn Male Halfling Barbarian, today i'll focuse on a new character and talk abit about the uniqueness of thsi game day.

In previous game days you would form your party, learn a bit about your characters and then run up to four encounters. I was a player for the PHB2 game day, and felt the DM was out to get me, this is when i decided to get my WPN and run the game day for MM2, it turned out to be a huge success ( ok for a city that can only support 1 gaming store) I got some people from a local gaming community and a guy who played d&d back in the day and was looking for some fun.

The diffrents is for the first our of game day, your group will be building the adventure. Thats right, you get to sit down as a group and use the maps & minitures to build two encounters for another group. I can see it already groups will try and trick eachother and make something that is killer.

Its not all just combat, in fact WotC recomends spending the first 10 minutes deciding the backstory and theme to the adventure, why are the players there to begin with. Everything is broken down to steps roughly 4 steps in total, from building the encounters to writting down encounter descriptions and what the DM will say when the players enter the area.

Overall im excited it seems like fun and i can't wait.

Lets take a look at Glorinus now (what a name)

Well there you have it

Tomorow i'll review with you a list of things you should bring to your game day event.

Find a Game Near You

My Game Day is being held at Alternate Icons

257 Marlborough Street, Brantford On

Noon until 6pm

Until game day keep your dice on the table.

DNDGD Preview: Holkarn Male Halfling Barbarian

Well its no secret I love game days, maybe its because i don't get a chance to go to cons, but for a 30 year old with two kids and a day job, being able to spend the day playing d&d is just great.

Each week before the game day i like to talk a bit about the game, a bit about the characters, and a bit about the location. So lets being shall we.

Location: 257 Marlborough Street * Brantford * Ontario * N3S 4T4 * 519-720-0771 *

Time: Noon until around 6 PM

Notes: Bring some cache for drinks, food & any purchases you wish to make.

Character Sheets

The character sheets in my opinion are absolutely amazing, yet simple. You'll notice some options are not present on the character sheet for brevity, and that's fine with me because at the end of the day lets just play. If the rule/feat is important enough I'll remember it and look it up when i need to.

If you can see here its pretty solid, you just put a check mark in your surges used as you heal. So Holkarn has 8 healing surges. Which should be fine for a 2 encounter adventure. The back side of the sheet has all the attack/utility powers.

Miniatures

With the last D&D game day, were lucky to get the new miniatures that are coming out as the player options. For us Canadians this is great, because I've never seen the pack of 3 at a price I'm willing to pay. I feel bad for store owners, but there isn't much they can do when they have to add shipping costs onto everything.

If you are going to be in the Brantford area come on and join us, rumor is there will be pizza. You can sign up on facebook via this link. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230449410132&index=1

If your not around here, but still want to play, then check out this link here from the www.dndgameday.com website, it will help you find a place near you: http://ww2.wizards.com/StoreAndEventLocator

Until game day, keep your dice on the table.

D&D Week End Review - May 23rd

Well the talk of the online town as it were this week was the price increase for DDI memberships (who really cares) and the d&d game day. We had a chance to play it here in Brantford and had 6 players show up. Three of my normal players and three new players how have not played 4e yet. Everyone had a good time and we finished within the time i set aside (noon to 6pm) I gave one of the table kits away to the three other guys because they wanted to get their normal group into 4e. Everyone walked away satisfied, unlike last game day.

There was some power card calculations that were wrong due to how thing were equipped but besides that everyone had a fun time.

There was also a few items of note on the net this week.

Adventure Ideas

Cave of wonders
this idea i got while watching Aladdin with my daughter. Its a short adventure, the goal is to find a hidden treasure in a hidden cave. the only way to get to the cave is find the two half's of a jeweled scarab and put them together. each half is its own skill challenge. it ends in a fight, success of the skill challenge means the party did not tip off the owner, failure means the owner was ready and waiting for a fight. Once the two pieces are found a 3rd skill challenge occurs to try and keep up with the scarab. failure means they keep up but are down two healing surge values each. Then the cave you keep pretty simple with the treasure at the end. few monsters, just a quick one. and there you go

The Deep Shaft
ME: Nice encounter from wizards

Sacrifice, Interrupted
ME: Great encounter from WotC includes a map and everything

DM Tips

SlyFlourish: #dnd tip: Want to get your warped D&D miniatures straightened? Put them in boiling water, straighten them, and put them in bowl of ice water
ME: I have gotten a few minis that were bent

SlyFlourish #dnd tip: A cut up black t-shirt can make a great fog of war for your dwarven forge layout.
ME: I think i will try this; this weekend, simple but effective

SlyFlourish: #dnd tip: Game going long? Distribute loot and exp in email between games. Add some good background or flavor text too.
ME: I often find myself doing this, great way to make NPC names official as well.

Skill Challenges

new idea from me, skill challenge in a dungeon. the mission is to retrieve an item from a dungeon. which happens to be massive. the dungeon is not overpopulated with mass amounts of monsters. so enter the skill challenge, each success gets the party closer to their goal, each failure loads up a combat encounter. Failing the skill challenge means they were unable to find said item

Skill Challenges of War
ME: How to run a war as a skill challenge

Skill Challenge: Skinning the Beast
Me: No comment, just a good skill challenge

Skillforge
ME: have trouble building skill challenges, go ahead and take one from here.

Other

Robertson Games » Blog Archive » Shields as Weapons in D&D
ME: REVREND!

Easier PDF reading on laptops and netbooks
ME: Its good and all, but tend to read the books or read while planning.

Bribe your players with bonus tokens.
ME: Basically its just either a +1 bonus or a +2 bonus tokens you hand out to your players for use whenever. neat idea in theory, but I've always found players hate having more stuff to keep track of. with 7 people i would just award an action point every encounter.

One time at D&D camp…
ME: Ok so apparently there was once a D&D came, seems cool.

City of the Dead is almost here: and Rosemary Jones is giving away a free book
ME: I've always been a fan of the Waterdeep setting, it had everything for me

Diabolical Devices: the frictionless room
ME: Taken from White Plume Mountain, one of my most favorite adventures to run as a DM ever. I like this trap, thought it always caused arguments.

That's it for me for this week, tomorrow night i should have our Sunday night adventure posted. For some reason the players think they are going up against a dragon. hahaha.

Until next time keep your dice on the table.
a peice of mikes mind

Game Day: Monster Manual 2

Here we are the morning of the big event. I hope anyone who is local to Brantford, Ontario will come down to alternate icons for the game at Noon at 257 Marlborough Street* Brantford * Ontario * N3S 4T4 *519-720-0771*

Want your characters in advance, well here they are *
*if using the modified version be sure and check if its ok with your DM, the modified version just spent some of the money*

Althaena

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Arjhana

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Chance

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Eomer

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

Uthal

• DDI
• Original
• Modified

6th Character - Dara

• DDI
• New

Game Day Preview: Althaea, level 5 Eladrin, Wizard

Althaea, level 5 Eladrin, Wizard
Arcane Implement Mastery: Wand of Accuracy

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 11, Dex 16, Int 21, Wis 12, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 8.

AC: 20 Fort: 13 Reflex: 18 Will: 17
HP: 37 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 9

TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +10, Arcana +14, Religion +12, History +14, Nature +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +7, Bluff +3, Diplomacy +3, Dungeoneering +5, Endurance +4, Heal +5, Insight +5, Intimidate +3, Perception +5, Streetwise +3, Thievery +7, Athletics +4

FEATS
Wizard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Improved Initiative
Level 2: Armor Proficiency (Leather)
Level 4: Jack of All Trades

POWERS
Wizard at-will 1: Scorching Burst
Wizard at-will 1: Magic Missile
Wizard encounter 1: Burning Hands
Wizard daily 1: Freezing Cloud
Wizard daily 1 Spellbook: Acid Arrow
Wizard utility 2: Expeditious Retreat
Wizard utility 2 Spellbook: Shield
Wizard encounter 3: Color Spray
Wizard daily 5: Fireball
Wizard daily 5 Spellbook: Stinking Cloud

ITEMS
Spellbook, Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Magic Wand +2, Implement, Wand, Bloodcut Leather Armor +1, Cape of the Mountebank +1

Saturday May 23
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Alternate Icons
257 Marlborough Street
Brantford
ON N3S 4T4‎

Game Day Preview: Chance, level 5 Tiefling, Warlord

Chance, level 5 Tiefling, Warlord
Commanding Presence: Bravura Presence

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 16, Wis 8, Cha 16.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 17, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 13.

AC: 20 Fort: 18 Reflex: 17 Will: 17
HP: 44 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 11

TRAINED SKILLS
History +10, Intimidate +10, Athletics +10, Diplomacy +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Arcana +5, Bluff +7, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +2, Heal +1, Insight +1, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +5, Stealth +3, Streetwise +5, Thievery +1

FEATS
Level 1: Improved Bravura
Level 2: Saving Inspiration
Level 4: Sickening Finish

POWERS
Warlord at-will 1: Brash Assault
Warlord at-will 1: Wolf Pack Tactics
Warlord encounter 1: Luring Focus
Warlord daily 1: Fearless Rescue
Warlord utility 2: Heroic Effort
Warlord encounter 3: Shielding Retaliation
Warlord daily 5: Scent of Victory

ITEMS
Longsword, Light Shield, Adventurer's Kit, Sacrificial Longsword +2, Healer's Brooch +1, Darkleaf Hide Armor +1

Game Day Preview: Uthal, level 5, Goliath, Barbarian

Uthal, level 5, Goliath, Barbarian
Feral Might: Rageblood Vigor

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 21, Con 17, Dex 11, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 14, Dex 11, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.

AC: 17 Fort: 20 Reflex: 14 Will: 14
HP: 56 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 14

TRAINED SKILLS
Nature +9, Endurance +9, Athletics +14

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +2, Heal +2, History +2, Insight +2, Intimidate +1, Perception +2, Religion +2, Stealth +1, Streetwise +1, Thievery +1

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Expertise (Heavy Blade)
Level 2: Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade)
Level 4: Long Jumper

POWERS
Barbarian at-will 1: Recuperating Strike
Barbarian at-will 1: Howling Strike
Barbarian encounter 1: Avalanche Strike
Barbarian daily 1: Swift Panther Rage
Barbarian utility 2: Primal Vitality
Barbarian encounter 3: Blade Sweep
Barbarian daily 5: Frost Wolf Rage

ITEMS
Hide Armor, Greatsword, Adventurer's Kit, Dynamic Greatsword +2, Healer's Brooch +1, Barkskin Hide Armor +1

Game Day Preview: Arjhana, level 5 Dragonborn, Rogue

Arjhana, level 5, Dragonborn, Rogue
Rogue Tactics: Brutal Scoundrel

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 13, Dex 19, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 13, Dex 18, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 8.


AC: 19 Fort: 16 Reflex: 19 Will: 13
HP: 50 Surges: 7 Surge Value: 13

TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +11, Thievery +11, Insight +7, Perception +7, Acrobatics +11, Athletics +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +2, Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2, Dungeoneering +2, Endurance +3, Heal +2, History +4, Intimidate +4, Nature +2, Religion +2, Streetwise +2

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Focus (Light Blade)
Level 2: Toughness
Level 4: Backstabber

POWERS
Rogue at-will 1: Piercing Strike
Rogue at-will 1: Riposte Strike
Rogue encounter 1: Guarded Attack
Rogue daily 1: Easy Target
Rogue utility 2: Tumble
Rogue encounter 3: Nasty Backswing
Rogue daily 5: Deep Cut

ITEMS
Sacrificial Dagger +2, Shared Suffering Leather Armor +1, Cloak of Distortion +1, Dagger (2), Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor

Saturday May 23
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Alternate Icons
257 Marlborough Street
Brantford
ON N3S 4T4‎

Game Day Preview: Eomer, level 5 Dwarf, Paladin

Eomer, level 5 Dwarf, Paladin

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 15, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 17.

AC: 23 Fort: 17 Reflex: 16 Will: 18
HP: 57 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 14

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +6, Intimidate +11, Heal +9, Diplomacy +11

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -2, Arcana +1, Bluff +6, Dungeoneering +6, Endurance +1, History +1, Insight +4, Nature +4, Perception +4, Stealth -2, Streetwise +6, Thievery -2, Athletics +1

FEATS
Level 1: Healing Hands
Level 2: Toughness
Level 4: Dwarven Weapon Training

POWERS
Paladin at-will 1: Bolstering Strike
Paladin at-will 1: Enfeebling Strike
Paladin encounter 1: Fearsome Smite
Paladin daily 1: Paladin's Judgment
Paladin utility 2: Sacred Circle
Paladin encounter 3: Righteous Smite
Paladin daily 5: Hallowed Circle

ITEMS
Longsword, Heavy Shield, Adventurer's Kit, Crossbow, Crossbow Bolts (20), Dynamic Craghammer +2, Plate Armor of Sacrifice +1, Cloak of the Walking Wounded +1

Unboxing the d&d game day package for monster manual 2

Well today (Tuesday) i got my box from Wizards of the Coast for the D&D Game Day coming up in just a few short weeks. I wanted to share the un-boxing experience with everyone.

Box is pretty straight forward, had some nice weight to it. I was pretty excited.








Like a Christmas present with a card on it, i opened up the envelop first. Excited to see that there was a large poster in there, and a few advertisement cards sitting inside ready and waiting for the game store.






As soon as i opened the box i could smell the fresh ink on the pages, and saw the bags upon bags of miniatures. A little shocked with the amount of plastic goes through these things i realized that d&d is not a green hobby.




The box came with some extra DCI forms, this should be great for Alerternate Icons.








Game day cards for the next game day. Dungeon Master Guide 2 game day.









A nice little catalog of products so you can see whats coming out in 2009.










Just look at the miniatures. As we get closer and closer to the game day i will reveal more and more information about the characters. I have to say though these guys look sweet. To the left is the three bags for each table of monsters only.




And to the left here is one bag for all the players, the miniatures are amazing.

Well that's it for this blog, and it does seem a little dirty but i wanted to share the images.

Until next time keep your dice on the table.

Game Anouncement for May 2009

So every month (Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm)I will be running a public game here in good old Brantford, Ontario.

Dan from Alternate Icons has been gracious enough to all us to host the games there. These games will have enough room for around 15 players total, three tables of five. Shoot me a email and grab a spot today, meet some of the gang from my Shadows of Orcus campaign and have fun playing D&D.

This month we of course will be running the World Wide D&D Game Day event for Monster Manual 2.

Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Here is some brief notes on the game day adventure

“The Silver Caves are a complex of numerous caverns connected by the streams and channels of a great river. A silver dragon named Erithon ruled over this region with an iron claw before dying years ago. Its lair was said to be somewhere deep in the Silver Caves, but powerful magic and evil creatures guard the river and the caverns alike.”

Journey Through the Silver Caves – A kobold wyrmpriest has stolen an ancient book of prophecy from the people of Albura, a fortress on the borderlands. The kobold has a dark plan for the book – and only you can stop him in time! An adventure for 5 pre-generated 5th-level characters.

As mentioned earlier the Game Day in Brantford will be held at Alternate Icons
View Larger Map
257 Marlborough Street, Brantford, ON N3S 4T4‎

Saturday, May 23 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

What to chose from (3 tables)

• Dwarf Paladin
• Dragonborn Rogue
• Goliath Barbarian
• Tiefling Warlord
• Eladrin Wizard

Official Alternate Icons Link